59. Corsica - Real Corsican food

A few years ago, Yotam Ottolenghi, British based chef, food writer and restauranteur made two television series about Mediterranean food.  Both were shown on SBS TV and one was called Ottolenghi's Mediterranean Island Feast.  

One of the islands he visited was Corsica and one of the restaurants he visited and cooked in was Chez Séraphin, in Peri, located in the mountains inland from Ajaccio.

Corsica is a bit like a national park where nothing much changes, except in some of the camping sites.  A few of the prettier camping sites have grown into towns with little planning and even less foresight.  But here in Peri, things have pretty much stayed the same as they have always been.

 

For Paul and I, Chez Séraphin was a beautiful reminder of the Italy and France we discovered on our first visit to Europe, back in 1998 and which rarely exist now, in 2015.

Back then it was common to see rock and stone and wood used as they had always been used - to create a garden.

To find shady terraces in the most unexpected places.

 To see plants cultivated and treasured for their habit and perfume and fruit.

To have trees valued and protected. 

 To appreciate sun and shade and know how to manage both. 

To enhance nature's beauty rather than remove it.

Alas, this is the first time on this trip we have come anywhere close to seeing something that is part of "the old Europe".  And sadly, it is only 17 years since we were first enchanted by many, many places like this one.

And so to lunch .......

We found our table set with floral cloths, mismatched china and extra cushions on the chairs. We even had a laid serving table.

There was no menu although we were asked our preferences for a couple of dishes - the vegetable course and the dessert.

We began with home made charcuterie and home grown tomatoes.  The meat was cured, air-dried ham much like prosciutto, home made salami and a meatloaf, much like a paté. Served with olives from the orchard, gherkins from the garden and bread from the oven.  I don't know about the butter.

There is no shortage of bees here! They descended on us as soon as the meat appeared. But they don't eat much and it was only when I nearly swallowed one that I broke out the citronella.

Then the local deterrent appeared - a smoking dish of some type of tree bark. Very effective.

Next up - battered zucchini flowers.  Delicate little pillows of air.  We demolished the plate so fast that they brought us more!

The next dish had been a choice. Paul chose cannelloni with meat.  Home made pasta with a sauce of crushed fresh tomato and a little meat paté inside.  Light, airy, delicious.

I chose a farci of vegetables with a little meat stuffing.  Zucchini, green capsicum and tomato - barely cooked, with a hint of fresh crushed tomato as a sauce. Yum!

I was wondering if I could possibly eat another thing when I saw the lamb come out of the wood oven.  

So, after a toilet break, a circuit of the terrace and some conjecture about the one dark cloud over the mountain, we settled in for the next course.

Perfect local mountain lamb with nothing but a few cloves of garlic and some Corsican herbs.  A plate of fried potato slices which, Paul says, is very traditional with a roast in Italy, and a salad.

Salad is also very traditional with roast meat.  This one was so fresh I double checked the lettuce for snails. The tiny leaves on the top were called 'popiere' according to our young and exceptionally cool waitress.  But despite Paul's Google searching talent, we can't discover anything about it.  It was used in the same way I use aptinia - a succulent ground cover with pretty coloured flowers, a bee-attractor, with a nice peppery taste.  Great as a salad enhancer as it was here.

And rather than a small plate of cheese slices, we were offered the whole board!  Plus more bread! Help yourself! Two local goat's cheeses and four local sheep's milk cheeses.

And finally it was dessert.  We had been asked at the beginning of lunch whether we would like dessert and given a choice of different types of charlotte.  I chose the chestnut charlotte.  It was the most delicate of cakes, sliced, brushed with a light liquor syrup and joined with chantilly (cream) and fresh chestnut puree from local roasted chestnuts. Wow!

Paul had 'charlotte chocolat'.  The same as mine but without the chestnut puree and smothered in an intense, not very sweet, dark chocolate sauce. He almost inhaled it.

Paul and I are both big eaters, but I don't know how we managed all of this.  Needless to say, neither of us ate again for 24 hours.

Coffee came in mismatched cups and saucers with an ancient, ant-proof, beaten aluminium (or tin or silver) sugar bowl.

We were sitting back, patting our overstretched tummies and complaining about the heat and humidity, when the little black rain cloud that had floated across the mountain .......

.... suddenly drenched everything.  Thirty minutes later - clean mountain air!

Good food - real food - local food.  Hard to find these days. We've been very, very lucky to  be able to come here to Chez Séraphin!